Community & Public Health

Hurricane Katrina forced New Orleans' remaining gangs into the Central City neighborhood. With this mass concentration of drug traffickers came a bloody turf war, near-daily shootings and a rising body count.

It's those first 1,000 days — from conception until a child's second birthday — that the brain most needs the right mix of nutrients to fully form. But programs that focus on such developmental goals are now at risk.

This article was produced as a project for the USC Center for Health Journalism’s California Fellowship.

Officials at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in Watts are trying to remedy that situation by focusing on preventative health.

The GOP’s House and Senate health reform bills both call for a massive restructuring of Medicaid that could lead to unprecedented funding cuts as states are forced to shrink their programs or make cuts elsewhere. But even if the latest plan founders in the Senate, governors and health officials in c

"I had to come to accept that the hospital wasn’t looking at me as a whole person — just a combination of vital signs, lab work, symptoms, and medical and nursing orders," writes Joy Victory.

The GOP's health care reforms would leave millions without insurance, and Florida could be hit harder than many other states. As a result, the Sunshine State's free clinics are gearing up for a wave of new patients.

New research finds that just before the ACA took effect, the U.S. had some of the biggest disparities in people’s perceptions of their own health and health care out of 32 countries sampled.

As the Salton Sea slowly dries up, an environmental health disaster is brewing. In response, the Desert Sun found new ways to report on the rising health threat to local communities.

Candince McMillian knew little about New Orlean's Central City neighborhood before she bought her home. Then two bullets ripped through her front door.